Inside the Braves with MLB.com's Mark Bowman

After Dan Uggla reached the 30-homer mark for the fifth consecutive season last night, some fans wondered, what his season would have been had he not struggled to find consistency during its first three months.

It’s understood it would be quite unrealistic to assume Uggla could maintain the pace he has produced over the past seven weeks over the course of an entire season. But just for fun, we’ll glance at what might have been.

Dating back to July 5, the start of his 33-game hitting streak, Uggla has batted .348 with 18 homers, 37 RBIs, a .412 on-base percentage and a .727 slugging percentage. He has homered once every 8.9 at-bats during this span.

Had he carried this pace throughout the entire season, Uggla would have already hit 53 homers and compiled 110 RBIs. In other words, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Justin Upton would not currently stand as the favorites to win the National League MVP Award and the Braves would likely feel even better about their odds to clinch a postseason berth.

Before the start of the hitting streak, Uggla hit .173 with 12 homers, 29 RBIs, a .241 on-base percentage and .327 slugging percentage. He homered once every 26.5 at-bats and his BAbip was .187.

Had he maintained the pace he carried through July 4, Uggla would currently have 18 homers, or the same amount he has totaled since July 5.

Simply pointing out Uggla leads the Majors in homers and slugging percentage since July 5 provides just a fraction of the overall picture. He has hit four more homers than any other Major Leaguer during his span and his .727 slugging percentage is .043 points better than Mike Napoli, who ranks second during this stretch. Troy Tulowitzki ranks third with a .634 mark.

Last year Uggla became the first second baseman in Major League history with four 30-homer seasons. Now he’s got five straight 30-homer seasons

Rogers Hornsby, Alfonso Soriano, Jeff Kent and Chase Utley are the only other Major Leaguers to have totaled three different 30 homer seasons as a second baseman. This has nothing to do with consecutive seasons.

Uggla has reached the 30-homer mark earlier (not necessarily faster) than he did in any of the previous four seasons. This year, his 30th came in his 478th at-bat and in his team’s 129th game of the season. He had never previously reached this mark before his team’s 142nd game of the season. But in 2008, it took him just 461 ABs to hit No. 30

Here’s a look at when Uggla reached has 30 HRs:

2007 — 596 ABs and team’s 152nd game

2008 — 461 ABs and team’s 142nd game

2009 — 527 ABs and team’s 152nd game

2010 — 520 ABs and team’s 143rd game

2011 — 478 ABs and team’s 129th game

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Uggla joins Wally Berger (1930), Davey Johnson (1973), Jeff Burroghs (1977), Andres Galarraga (1998) and J.D. Drew (2004) as the only players in franchise history to hit 30 homers in their first season with the Braves.

This was just one of the early nuggets provided this morning by Braves media relations coordinator Jim Misudek. He also pointed out that the Braves have gone 18-1 since June 1 in games in which Eric O’Flaherty, Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel have each made an appearance.

Kimbrel has not allowed a run in his past 30 2/ innings and Venters has held opponents scoreless in his past 22 2/3 innings. These stand as the longest current scoreless streaks in the Majors. Phillies left-handed starter Cliff Lee posted this year’s longest scoreless streak when he did not allow a run over 34 innings from June 11-July 3.

Odds and ends: Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said the club has not discussed monitoring Brandon Beachy’s workload as he nears the end of the first full season of his life as a starting pitcher. Beachy totaled professional highs with 134 1/3 innings and 16 starts last year. This year he has worked 108 1/3 innings in 19 starts. He did have the benefit of resting for a month after straining his oblique muscle in June.

Peter Moylan threw 18 pitches while allowing a hit and issuing a walk in a scoreless inning for Triple-A Gwinnett Monday night. Pitching in a game for the first time since April 14, he sent a text saying, “it wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.”

I thought he was referring to his brief rehab appearance. But by the end of the night, I was wondering if he was just giving a line to describe Jair Jurrjens’ performance last night.

Got Michael Bourn without giving up any of the Big 4. Got the power right-handed reliever internally without dumping top prospects a la the Rangers. Oh yeah.. we got Vizcaino for Vazquez who has been awful since departing Atlanta. At the time, trading him and keeping Hudson was such an “awful idea.” Signing Infante.. Then getting Uggla for Infante/Dunn and not Prado/Venters. Jurjjens.. Hinske.. David Ross.. O’Flaherty.. Moylan.. Everyone says Lowe was a horrible move but wasn’t everyone complaining at the time that he didn’t get Burnett or Peavy? Lowe won 15 games in his first 2 years w us and basically got us into the playoffs last year. Griffey Jr? Garrett Anderson was a bust, but was a recommendation from Bobby. Everyone complained about not getting Raffy Furcal.. He has been injured constantly.. Escobar was Bobby’s idea.. KK was heavily influenced by McDowell and is the one truly bad FA signing, but was done at a moment of desperation after the entire rotation went down. With McLouth you couldn’t predict that a 27 year old gold glove all star to completely go down the drain in a matter of months. It’s not like we signed him as a free agent. Bill, you can’t say anything to Brandon about wanting Schafer to fail when you clearly have strong biases towards certain players or people in the organization.

You spent the whole last half of your post defending lousy deals. While your at it Frenchy for Ryan Church and then this year many wanted to trade something to get Frenchy back. Church was a historic flop, 3 months with the Braves and then out of BB altogether. Signing poor cripple Chip to a 4 year deal that runs until he’s 40? Yeah, How could he have seen that writing on the wall? Failure to sign a OF RHed bat for what 3 years now?? Signing Derek the Drunk for 4 years $15MM per, yeah, that was brilliant. Signing Fredo and Lp for god’s sake. The guy had never been a hitting instructor at any level. Oh, I guess that’s what the Majors are for, on the job training for a potential contender. Yes I have strong biases and most turn out to be right. Remember, Nate McWho? You blame the Coach for one huge mistake and the batting coach for another. Last I checked it was the GM’s job to secure players, pretty sure that’s the job description. Viva, you are sometimes rational but your out in LF on this one. I mean Qtip has such a great eye for talent, he had Georgie stuck in the minors, while we were desperately looking for speed, OF defense and OBP. And now when were are struggling to rest our pitchers we leave two proven performers down so Gwinnett can have a full staff?????? WTF is that about? I could go on and on, but dinners getting cold. Think about it in a somewhat objective light, being a homer doesn’t make for reasoned discussion.

I think folks need to step back from both the haterade AND the bandwagon… we have a decent GM who has made a lot of mediocre moves, some great, and some horrible. He’s not the anti-christ and he’s not the second coming. It’s like we have MSNBC vs Fox news here… reel it in guys, not everything is sensational.

Still crying on the internet little Billy? Oh noos, Schafer went 0-4 and it’s my fault for being a big ole meanie(even though I clearly stated I wanted him to succeed). Oh noos, FW makes bad decisions, let me complain AGAIN about it. Jesus Christ don’t you have a job or hobby to devote this time to man? Is Frank Wren a good GM? Not really. Is crying about it helping? Not at all. Get a grip, take a step back from the keyboard, and remind yourself no one in baseball gives a damn about what you say. You are no one, let it go.

That really is interesting… when Escobar came to TO (I live in Toronto) I had mixed feelings because I wished things had worked out with the Braves, but it’s been exciting for me to get to see him some more here.

I’m not quite as excited to watch Johnson to be honest. The interesting thing is that the Jays and Hill/ Johhny Mac seem to be talking about the whole trade as though it’s only temporary; they seem to suggest that both of them could be back with the Jays in the spring. That sort of thing strikes me as odd.

Someone in the Braves’ traveling party must take it upon themselves to bottle about 1,000 gallons of Chicago water–there’s apparently something in it that forces Gonzalez to accept the fact that some pitches don’t need to be swung at, and it has also begun to restore Heyward’s mojo.
In other news, PWHjort is now a Blue Jays fan…

Chipper has made a couple of bad judgments on the base paths this season. Failed to go second to third on a ground ball to SECOND base a couple of weeks ago. In that same game, earlier was thrown out trying to go to third on a ground ball to short. What’s up with him?

You guys are like old rattlesnakes. “No excuse, Heyward” after going 3-4 w 4 RBIs.. “Chipper quit on that ground ball”.. after going 3-4. Please, can you guys just once some day start up a rational conversation that isn’t just writing down what you just saw on television or berating kids 1/4 your age? That would be great.

Bill would of gone 4 for 4 with 4 home runs. Its easy didnt you know? Hitting? SOme fans say no excuse for not making a productive out, and I say that it really isnt that easy when a pitcher is throwing a small object at 90mph. You cant always do what you want to do. Even albert pujols grounds in to a ton of double plays. Even ALbert Pujols doesnt get the runner home from third with less than 2 outs all the time. WHy? Because its hard.

I’m nothopping on any damn bandwagon. I just makes me happy to see anytime anyone makes a stand against assholes. When I first started reading this blog I didn’t see much of anyone who did that. If you don’t agree with someone else’s opinion fine, but, don’t be a douchebag towards them for it. It seems like the only way you can “discuss” with others is by caling them names instead of actually bringing any factual support to your argument. I think u have 3 main lines u use. “Zippy your and idiot”, something related to “brandie”, and calling me a “hillbilly”. U can call me all the names u want but I guarantee I’m less of a hillbilly or redneck than you are. I am far from it. Ill be in atlanta on the 31st and 1st fo the games against the nats if u wanna discuss it in person.

I’m really glad Heyward killed it tonight. I hate that it took a Constanza injury to make it happen, but he made the most of it. So I now offer up this challenge to Constanza: learn to play shortstop. And then I’m happy.

I’m not a huge fan of Gonzalez or Lowe (so on that point I’ll agree with Bill), but I’m glad that Chipper is playing well and I think you have to give his his due. McCann is our present and future leader, though, and I just want to see Heyward and Freeman BOTH playing well as part of his larger supporting cast.

Viva- I am not being negative and I love Chipper. I will call out ANY baseball player that quits on a play. In a one run game. In September. I don’t care if we have a 10 game lead or we’re 20 games below .500. Major leaguers get paid to give 100%… and Chipper will be the first to tell you that. You could tell immediately that he was disappointed in himself. And everyone knows that had that been Yunel Escobar we would be railing on him. Chipper has earned every bit of grace he receives from the media and fans… but quitting on a play deserves some discussion. ESPECIALLY in a 1 run game.

True I’d judge Yunel differently, both because of his repeated antics, but also because he’s young and healthy and there’s no reason he shouldn’t go in hard. This is of course an argument against Chipper’s current contract, but that’s another conversation. I still like the guy up at the plate in tight situations, and while I’d prefer he was able to go 110% every play, I also would prefer that he stayed healthy.

Point is, Chipper should have went in hard and there isn’t any valid excuse to defend why he didn’t, but by the same token I’m glad he didn’t get injured going in hard on a routine double play where he’s colliding with the bag and/or 2nd baseman 3 seconds after he throws to first.

And it’s for this reason I think he will get a guaranteed Majors deal this offseason. He can take a walk. Even last year, in correlation to his batting average, his OBP was over 100 points higher than it. That’s a good walk rate no matter what you’re hitting.

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